Sound Cloud Sunday – January 10, 2021
Sound Cloud Sunday January 10, 2021
Happy New Year, everyone, our first show of the year brings us a little bit of optimism about the year. ahead. Perhaps we will go to a show. Perhaps, while we adore everyone’s acoustic quarantine records, we are hoping for more fully realized studio albums recorded with the artists together. And most of all, we hope we can get out and hug one another. In the meantime, click below to listen to a whole new hour of great new indie music from all over the dang planet. The full episode is below:
Ivor Game – You’re The One
Hometown: London, England
Album:
Review Snippet: Luckily, I have some first hand experience of Ivor. Five or six years ago when I was still driving my Son around, he spent about eighteen months playing the ‘Acoustic Night’ circuits in the London pubs and bars. These tended to be a step up from Open Mic nights but a shade below a full paying gig. Nevertheless, an important developmental career step and often the standard of performers were dauntingly good. In this time, I think my Son probably shared the bill with Ivor on seven or eight occasions and this was always a treat for us. I recall him as a beautifully fluid acoustic guitarist with a lovely combination of intricate picking, sweet alternating bass lines and a meaty, percussive backbeat. His songs were short, witty, pithy and tuneful and I remember a particular favourite of ours was ‘I Like Being At Home’ with it’s list of domestic enticements! He always went down well with the crowd and was a very engaging performer, a hard act to follow on Showcase night!
Website: http://www.ivorgame.com/
Charley Crockett – I Can Help
Hometown: San Benito, TX
Album: From the compilation album “Next Waltz 3”
Review Snippet: The Next Waltz project helmed by Bruce Robison will be issuing their 3rd compilation volume on November 27th, just in time for music lovers looking for seasonal gifts for themselves or others. Featuring songs from Flatland Cavalry, The Panhandlers, Charley Crockett, Jack Ingram, and more, the volume comes on the heels of Vol. 2 reaching #1 on Americana radio earlier this year.
Started as a side project where Bruce Robison could collaborate with fellow creators in Texas in his analog studio in Lockhart and post fun videos and a few cover songs, it has morphed into a serious concern in Texas music and beyond that now is releasing full-blown original records like the debut album from Texas supergroup The Panhandlers, as well as offering management and other services as they’re doing for songwriter John Baumann.
“Our mission stays the same, we’re connecting the heart and soul of Austin and Texas to the wilder world of country music,” Robison says during the 12-minute “infomercial” for the upcoming compilation (see below), which will only be available directly on vinyl and via digital download. However, some of the songs from the compilation have already been released digitally as singles, including Jack Ingram’s timely “Times Like These,” and Flatland Cavalry’s “War With My Mind” (listen below).
Website: https://www.thenextwaltz.com/
Aaron Frazer – Ride With Me
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Album: From the album “Introducing” out January 8 on Dead Oceans. Produced with Dan Auerbach.
Review Snippet: He may have called his debut album Introducing, but Aaron Frazer is no stranger to the music world. As drummer and co-vocalist of Durand Jones & the Indications, the Baltimore native is well versed in classic soul and his first solo foray stays true to his roots.
Website:
Steffen Basho-Junghas – Rainbow Dancer
Hometown: Germany
Album: From the album “The Dancer On The Hill” released September 25 on Architects Of Harmonic Rooms and Records.
Review Snippet: Junghans’ solo acoustic pieces, written for both six and twelve-stringed instruments, are nothing if not deeply bound to the earth. Even his most esoteric, experimental work– like last year’s astoundingly inventive Waters in Azure— has a deeply naturalistic feel to it; you can almost smell the forests of his native Eastern Germany in the pinpoint picking. Rivers & Bridges opens up with a twenty-two minute (!) meditation called “The River Suite”, which while not strictly a suite, nevertheless embodies the flow of a river across miles of rolling terrain, to a tee. Rapidly cascading tremolo picking and sweeping strums burst like foam from rapids into the air, before the piece widens out , flattening for a lazy roll through less dramatic surroundings.
Website: https://architectsofharmonicroomsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/is
Andy Johnson – 500 Pesos To Oz
Hometown: Georgia
Album: Debut single self-released.
Review Snippet: “500 Pesos to Oz” is a song about one of Johnson’s memories of a special day in Todos Santos, BCS, Mexico. “This song is dedicated to anyone that has felt cut off from their own special happy places,” he said. “If you can use your imagination, your ‘Casa Azul’ is only a song away!”
Website:
Hannah Paularsen featuring Florian Hellikan – Drinking My Coffee
Hometown: Netherlands
Album: Self-released single.
Review Snippet:
Website: https://www.facebook.com/hannahpaularsen/
Flatland Cavalry – War With My Mind
Hometown: Lubbock, TX
Album: From the album The Next Waltz 3
Review Snippet: Just as bands like the Turnpike Troubadours certify their dominant status by getting national opportunities, a band like Flatland Cavalry comes along to take their place as the next great thing, feeding the music scene with fresh blood. Similar to Turnpike, Flatland Cavalry carries a more country rock sound compared to the straight-laced honky tonkers, yet the strong presence of fiddle keeps the music firmly grounded in its Texas roots, as does the songwriting that adheres to the elevated standards insisted upon by fans and peers.
Website: https://www.thenextwaltz.com/
Anna Egge – This Time
Hometown: Saskatchewan, Canada
Album: New single
Review Snippet: Steve Earle is a fan and has stated that Ana sounds “like she’s telling us her deepest, darkest secrets.”
Website: https://www.anaegge.com
State Cows – Turnaround
Hometown: Sweden
Album: New single just released January 6.
Review Snippet: Any group that can kick out a gumbo of yacht rock and Steely Dan mid-career brilliance deserves our attention. And from day one the Swedish band State Cows has serenaded our ears with this caliber of music, the kind that introduces hearty jazz-rock fusion to palettes of soulful ‘80s pop.
Website: https://statecows.com/
Selywyn Birchwood – I’ll Climb Mountains
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Album: From the album “Living In A Burning House’ out January 29 on Alligator Records.
Review Snippet: Thanks to some impassioned power-strutting slide guitar, that party spirit segues effortlessly into second track, “Even the Saved Need Saving,” which really kicks off the celebrations. With high-pitched slide guitar cutting through the mix, the striking melody offsets layers of brass instrumentation and Birchwood’s baritone vocals.
Website: https://www.selwynbirchwood.com/
The Foole – Don’t Call It Love
Hometown:
Album: From the album “This Point of Fool” self-released last July.
Review Snippet:
Website:
Strung Like A Horse – Til The Wheels Fall Off
Hometown: Chattanooga, TN
Album: From the album “Whoa” released in September on Transoceanic Records.
Review Snippet: Strung Like A Horse saddles up for their debut release, WHOA! Not exactly a thoroughbred, Strung Like A Horse (SLAH) is a cross-breed of Country, Rock, Bluegrass, and outdoor festival Jam band. After touring extensively, they caught the attention of Jason Isbell’s Grammy winning producer, Matt Ross-Spang. Ross-Spang was able to reign in their disparate influences to produce a cohesive sound that, although not galloping, moves along at a pleasant cantering pace.
Website: http://www.strunglikeahorse.com/
Arnold Mitchem – Dance The Night Away
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Album: Album of the same name released in December
Review Snippet: Perfectly crafted to accompany a long road trip. Definitely one to check out if you like well-written traditional blues-rock songs from the likes of Bob Seger.
Website: https://www.arnoldmitchem.com/
The Advertisement – Days Of Heaven
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Album: From the album “American Advertisement” released in July on Patchwork Fantasy Records.
Review Snippet: Vibing to their frayed mid-1970s swagger and impulse-buying a cassette from the merch table despite having no way to play it. At some point in the sweaty haze, you might text your dad, telling him to put down the Greta Van Fleet and listen to this instead. They do a fine approximation of Laurel Canyon twang on country-rock brooders like “Days of Heaven” and “Shipwrecked Hearts,” broadening the band’s hard-rock pedigree, and when monotony starts to set in on Side B, the aforementioned “Always” is a welcome jolt.
Website: https://advertisement.bigcartel.com/
Post Data – Nobody Knows
Hometown: Nova Scotia, Canada
Album: From the album “Twin Flames” out March 5, 2021
Review Snippet: On Let’s Be Wilderness, his new record with revolving-door project Postdata, Paul Murphy explores both sides of that coin. The frontman of beloved Nova Scotia alternative outfit Wintersleep, Murphy has built a circle of collaborators, friends, and family around him for more than a decade. Murphy first released music with Postdata in 2010, a self-titled debut that saw him working with his brother Michael to record a set of songs that dealt with family, legacy, and connection. Now, Postdata returns with Let’s Be Wilderness, a record characterized by those two old bickering friends: love and death.
Website: http://www.postdatamusic.com/
Cody Canada – Wonder If The World Can Wait That Long
Hometown: Nova Scotia, Canada
Album: From the album “The Next Waltz 3”
Review Snippet:
Website: a
